Connect with the top gaming leaders in Los Angeles at GamesBeat Summit 2023 from May 22-23. Register here.
Ubisoft revealed Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege details for Year 8 Season 1 with news about Operation Commanding Force and a Brazilian operator.
This season introduces Brava, a new Brazilian operator, and gameplay updates including an immersive reload update, the Mousetrap feature to address players using a mouse and keyboard on consoles, and further anti-toxicity measures. It is the latest update in a series with over 80 million registered players to date and a strong esports community.
Commanding Force unleashes Brava, an attacker equipped with the Kludge Drone gadget. This drone disrupts hostile surveillance and offers counter tactics, such as reusing the technology for her team. Brava is an extremely flexible operator and can benefit in any environment by accessing electronic resources available to it. Brava is a three-speed, one-health operator, and her loadout includes a PARA-308 or a CAMRS as a primary weapon and a USP40 or a Super Shorty as a secondary weapon.
Players using mouse and keyboard on consoles activate a penalty that adds delay to their input. The purpose of this penalty is to encourage fair gameplay by removing the unfair advantage that mouse and keyboard players have on consoles. While active, continuous use of mouse and keyboard gradually increases the lag over several matches, making it more difficult to aim and shoot.
Completing matches with a controller gradually returns the lag to normal. Other anti-toxicity measures include a new reputation penalty for abusive voice chat. When active, repeat offenders will be muted by default to prevent hateful and disruptive content in voice chat. Muted players can still use voice chat, but will only be heard by unmuted players.
In Year 8, Rainbow Six Siege focuses on cementing its position as a high-intensity tactical shooter, where focused action, precision and creative tactics are the keys to success. Coming in Commanding Force is a balancing update to Zero, improvements to the Play section UI, balancing changes for weapon attachments, and a new immersive reloading system: when the animation is paused, the player will not have a magazine, but closed-bolt weapons will have a single round that the player can use at any time during the reload.
Also coming this season are new onboarding features to help new players learn Rainbow Six Siege: Beginner Challenges and Specialty Challenges. Challenges for beginners identify an operator’s style of play in the game. All operators have one to two specialties that can be reviewed during the planning phase, in the operator section, and in the operator manuals. Specialty Challenges are designed to help novice players learn the different Operator Specialties and what they contribute to a match. By completing challenges, players can earn various rewards, including an operator after completing all challenges for a single specialty. If the operator is already owned, players earn their worth in fame instead. All players can
challenges and earn all rewards, not just beginners.
From February 20 to March 20, players can purchase the limited-time Year 8 Pass for $30 to unlock the four seasonal Battle Passes, 14-day early access to new operators when they launch, exclusive exotic weapon skins, 10% VIP discount in the store, and more. For $60, the Premium Year Pass offers all of the above benefits plus 20 additional Battle Tokens that players can use to unlock rewards faster.
The Season 1 Battle Pass introduces the Bravo Pack Ticket, a rare item that allows you to choose an exclusive reward from the latest Bravo Collection. This ticket will be awarded to Premium players who reach level 100 in this season’s Battle Pass as a reward for their dedication.
*Ubisoft+ on Luna requires account linkage and a Multi-Access subscription. Territorial restrictions apply
GamesBeat’s credo in covering the gaming industry is “where passion meets business”. What does this mean? We want to tell you how important the news is to you — not only as a decision maker in a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you’re reading our articles, listening to our podcasts, or watching our videos, GamesBeat helps you learn about and have fun with the industry. Discover our Briefings.
